Page 37 of Summer Weddings
His hands gripped her shoulders. “Why did you go out with him?”
Surely that wasn’t distress she heard in Cole’s voice? Not after all that casual indifference this afternoon. She frowned, bewildered by the pain she saw in his eyes. And she finally understood. Contrary to everything he’d claimed, Cole was jealous. Really and truly jealous.
“Did he kiss you?” he asked with an urgency, an intensity, she’d never heard in his voice before.
Robin stared, frozen by the stark need she read in him.
Cole’s finger rested on her mouth. “Did Frank kiss you?” he repeated.
She shook her head and the motion brushed his finger across her bottom lip.
“He wanted to, though, didn’t he?” Cole asked with a brooding frown.
“He didn’t kiss me.” She was finally able to say the words. She couldn’t kiss Frank or anyone else. The only man she wanted to kiss and be kissed by was the man looking down at her now. The man whose lips were descending on hers… .
Chapter7
“So, did you like this guy you had dinner with last night?” Jeff asked, keeping his eyes on his bowl of cold cereal.
“He was nice,” Robin answered, pouring herself a cup of coffee and joining him at the table. They’d slept late and were spending a lazy Sunday morning enjoying their breakfast before going to the eleven o’clock service at church.
Jeff hesitated, his spoon poised in front of him. “Is he nicer than Cole?”
“Cole’s…nicer,” Robin admitted reluctantly.Niceandnicerweren’t terms she would’ve used to describe the differences between Frank and Cole, but in her son’s ten-year-old mind they made perfect sense.
A smile quivered at the edges of Jeff’s mouth. “I saw you two smooching last night,” he said, grinning broadly.
“When?” Robin demanded—a ridiculous question. It could only have happened when Cole had come over to talk to her. He’d confessed how jealous he’d been of Frank and how he’d struggled with the emotion and felt like a fool. Robin had been convinced she was the one who’d behaved like an idiot. Before either of them could prevent it,they were in each other’s arms, seeking and granting reassurance.
“You thought I was asleep, but I heard Cole talking and I wanted to ask him what he was gonna do about you and this other guy, so I came downstairs and saw you two with your faces stuck together.”
The boy certainly had a way with words.
“You didn’t look like you minded, either. Cole and me talked about girls once, and he said they aren’t much when they’re ten, but they get a whole lot more interesting later on. He said girls are like green apples. At first they’re all sour and make your lips pucker, but a little while later they’re real good.”
“I see,” Robin muttered, not at all sure she liked being compared to an apple.
“But when I got downstairs I didn’t say anything,” Jeff said, “because, well, you know.”
Robin nodded and sipped her coffee in an effort to hide her discomfort.
Jeff picked up his cereal bowl and drank the remainder of the milk in loud gulps. He wiped the back of his hand across his lips. “I suppose this means you’re going to have a baby now.”
Robin was too horrified to speak. The swallow of coffee got stuck in her throat and she started choking. Trying to help her breathe, Jeff pounded her back with his fist, which only added to her misery.
By the time she caught her breath, tears were streaking down her face.
“You all right, Mom?” Jeff asked, his eyes wide with concern. He rushed into the bathroom and returned with a wad of tissue.
“Thanks,” she whispered, wiping her face. It took her a moment or two to regain her composure. This was a talk she’d planned on having with him soon—but not quite yet. “Jeff, listen…kissing doesn’t make babies.”
“It doesn’t? But I thought… I hoped… You mean you won’t be having a baby?”
“I… Not from kissing,” she whispered, taking in deep breaths to stabilize her pulse.
“I suppose the next thing you’re gonna tell me is we’ll have to save up for a baby the way we did for the house and now the fence before we get me a dog.”
This conversation was getting too complicated. “No, we wouldn’t have to save for a baby.”
